Bobby Zankel and the Warriors of the Wonderful Sound Featuring David Murray

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Bobby Zankel & Warriors of the Wonderful Sound are proud to present the masterful tenor saxophonist David Murray in concert. This evening of live jazz is a perfect mix of high energy ensemble, and solo compositions. Zankel and Murray first played informally together in 1975 when Murray arrived in New York, just prior to Zankelʼs move to Philadelphia. The two musicians worked together during Murrayʼs historic residency at the Painted Bride in the early 1990ʼs.

Few musicians in jazz history have proven more vigorously productive and resourceful than David Murray. During the past 35 years, from the moment he first visited New York as a 20 year-old student, playing in a walkup loft, in 1975, David has careened forward in a cool, collected, rocket-fueled streak. He has released over 150 albums under his own name. Yet more impressive than the numbers is the constancy of two abiding achievements: as a tenor saxophonist, he has perfected an instantly recognizable approach to improvisation that even in its freest flights acknowledges the gravity of a tradition he honors more than most; and he has altered he context for his improvisations as an infinite mosaic of musical challenges and explorations. David Murray, now in his fifties, has 130 albums to his name and contributions to around a hundred other recordings as a guest artist behind him.

Born in Oakland, he grew up in Berkeley and studied with Catherine Murray (his mother, an organist), Bobby Bradford, Arthur Blythe, Stanley Crouch and many others until the 2nd March 1975 when he left Ponoma College in Los Angeles for New York, which he made his base. In New York, he met many new musicians and musical styles: Anthony Braxton, Don Cherry, Julius Hemphill … Within Ted Danielsʼ Energy Band, he worked with Hamiett Bluiett, Lester Bowie and Frank Lowe. In 1976, after a first European tour, David Murray set up one of his mythical groups, the World Saxophone Quartet with Oliver Lake, Hamiett Bluiett and Julius Hemphill. From Jerry Garcia to Max Roach, via Randy Weston and Elvin Jones, David Murray continued working with ever more artists and making ever more recordings.

At 60 years of age, David Murray has a rosy future ahead of him, and a successful past behind him. This year marks a new milestone in David Murrayʼs discography, with the release of ʻPerfectionʼ, which gathers around David Murray two of the most sensitive contemporary jazz musicians: pianist Geri Allen and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington.